More SNOW is Falling; Cold Temps Means More Base; More Trails Open!

Man is it COLD out and about this morning! This is the first of several days in a row that we’re going to see highs in the teens and 20s with lows in the near zero to single digit range! We’re also getting some crazy wind so BUNDLE UP if you’re headed to the slopes! Any exposed skin will be subject to frostbite in a hurry with these kinds of conditions.

These kind of temperatures are perfect for snowmaking crews and we’ve seen a lot of base depths rise in the last 24 hours. Natural snow has fallen as well and we’ve seen from 3.8" of new snow at Ski Beech and Sugar Mountains and as much as 8.1" of new snow around Canaan Valley in West Virginia. Wisp Resort in McHenry, Maryland saw another 6" of new snow in the last 24 hours!

However the TEMPS are the big story today so we’re giving you guys a tour and showing you the temperatures this morning compared to just 24 hours ago! We’re seeing another 3-6" of snow in today’s forecast and POWDER skiing and riding is available nearly everywhere!

We’re Providing ONE Snow Report and FirsTrax story this Morning!

I was late getting our Snow Report running for a couple of reasons. First, we had more news to cover than normal and second, when I logged into our server it reported that we were almost out of DISK SPACE and that is NUTS! The visitor log files which are no more than simple notepad text files were so large for the last week that they had eaten up our disk space! I’ll have to run some stats reports to see what that means in terms of unique visits but it hints that traffic has been bonkers of late! All of this cold and snow has you guys itching for photos, videos and reports.

We’ll try to update a lot more videos and photos later in the weekend.

We Want to thank Cocorahs and David Lesher for Some Great Reporting Stations Lately.

Getting accurate snow reporting is something that is very important to us as we attempt to provide you guys with "No Bull Reporting". Those reporting stations offer an invaluable resource to us and we want to thank all of the hearty souls who are devoting time out of every single day to provide that data! Also thanks to David Lesher of Tucker County. David is a retired gentleman in his late 60s who has what we believe to be the best reporting station around in terms of providing snow fall totals, temps and even snow depth reporting every day of the year. Thanks to him as well. One of these days we’re going to get a network setup at every ski area that will offer this great data! Thanks also to the ski areas that already offer that service. You know who you are and we appreciate you guys!

With the late start on the day – AND the fact that I have my University of South Carolina playing in a bowl game at 2pm, I’m going tp wrap things up and move on to the tour today and begin it with the North Carolina ski areas and move up…just to offer some equal billing around the Southeast and Mid Atlantic region.

Here we go…

Appalachian Ski Mountain – 7° – Friday AM 28° – Picked up .5" of new snow, 2.5" in the last three days and they are in awesome shape and 100% open with all three terrain parks, ice skating and great conditions.

Beech Mountain Resort – 1° – Friday AM 23° – The Cocorah’s reporting station posted by Beech staffer, Gil Adams is reporting 3.5" of new snow, 3.8" in the last 48 hours and 5" in the last three days. That takes Beech to 29.3" on the season. Beech now has OZ RUN OPEN. They opened it on Friday for the first time since the 2007-2008 season. They have a new Oz Quad lift speeding people to the top of what is always a very popular trail. The long, glide run also does a great job of taking some of the heavy weekend traffic off of the front side of the mountain! Beech now has 13 of 15 trails open. They are really only short of 100% of being open with only Upper White Lightning yet to open and their dedicated terrain park area which was dug two offseasons ago and has never yet been opened. Beech has an advanced Terrain Park setup on Powder Bowl which is open so once they get Upper White Lightning going you’ll have Beech with the most terrain that they’ve had operating since the 07-08 campaign. Hats off to Beech for getting there!

Cataloochee Ski Area – 7° – Friday AM 26° – They are 100% open with The Cat Cage Terrain Park and Tubing operating as well. Cat states, "Limited snowmaking will continue during the day on Saturday, on the Upper Snowbird Trail" so that means awesome conditions with NO snowmaking on you while you’re enjoying these great conditions (except up there). Cataloochee nor Cocorahs is reporting any measureable natural snow in the last 48 hours for the Haywood Country ski area.

Sapphire Valley Ski Area – 14° – Friday AM 34° – Contrary to some reporting services Sapphire Valley is open with both trails and their Frozen Falls Tubing Park. They have not updated their own snow report this entire season to date (we did the only one thus far back on Dec 23rd) and they have four or five "websites" and none are reporting anything. A phone call is about the only way to know they are open. It might be time to drop these guys from our reporting. We’ll see. They’re kind of like Jonas Ridge Tubing or Scaly Mountain – "If you’re interested in tubing or playing here, call us and we’ll tell you if we have snow and are open."

It is a cool, little, family fun slope but they’re not all that interested in telling anyone about it.

Wolf Ridge Resort – 13° – They are reporting 11 of 20 trails open and they have received 1.2" of new snow in the last 24 hours according to the Cocorah’s reporting station at Mars Hill. (2" in the last 72 hours.) Wolf posted, "More runs will be opened in the next several days and the weather man is calling for a continuation of snowfall through next Tuesday."

According to Cocorah’s they have now seen 18.5" of snow officially on the season since December 1st with 16.2" of that coming from the December 19-21st snowfall which still has some 2" of snow depth on the ground.

Sugar Mountain Resort – 1.4° – Friday AM 24° – Sugar has seen 5" of new snow in the last three days with 3.8" of it coming in the last 24 hours so that means awesome conditions on 100% of their trails (20) and they have their tubing park, terrain park and ice skating going as well.

Hawksnest Tubing and ZipLines – .5° – Friday AM 24° – They are reporting 3.5" of new snow, 5" in the last 72 hours and 27.5" on the season. At ZERO DEGREES and with the winds we’re seeing this morning, how would you guys like to try zip lining that adds another 30-40 mph to the mix? Jeesh!!!

Snowshoe Mountain – 1° – Friday AM 26° – They are reporting another 4" of new snow in the last 24 hours, 5" in the last 48 hours and 17" in the last four days! That is 65" on the season and they are closing in on being 100% open with 57 of 60 trails open. They offer the most terrain in the region and snowmobiling, snocat rides, snow tubing, terrain parks and more!

I was running around the Village area on my way leaving Snowshoe on Friday morning and ran into my super-friend, Communications Guru, Laura Parquette who always is über friendly and helpful. She was hustling around as well and she posted this early this AM, "All this natural snow will help as we edge closer and closer to being 100% open. Today we get one step closer with the addition of Sawmill Glades. Snowmaking is predicted to start on Lower Shay’s Revenge in the very near future, and with lots of cold weather in the forecast, we should have it opened before long."

Snowshoe is expecting ANOTHER 2-4" of snow today!

Canaan Valley Resort – 9° – Friday AM 30° – Canaan’s team is reporting 5" of snow in the last 24 hours, but the official weather station reporting by David Lesher in Tucker County shows 8.1" of new snow in the last 24 hours! They have now seen 68.6" on the season! POWDER SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING ANYONE!!! Canaan has 100% of their 39 trails open!

(Special thanks to Mr. Lesher who runs that official reporting station. MAN we wish we had that for every area!)

Timberline Resort – 3.1° – Friday AM 30° – They too have seen 8.1" of snow in the last 24 hours and 68.6" on the season! Timberline now has 26 of 37 trails open and Bear Claw Terrain Park. Timberline also has THREE double blacks open in Upper Silver Streak, Off the Wall and The Drop! Kim Falls reports that they are offering LIVE ENTERTAINMENT every night this week and a good chance of natural in each of the next five days!

Note: Several reporting services are still showing Timberline as closed and they are every bit OPEN and in great condition!

Winterplace Resort – 10° – Friday AM 30° – Thanks to Missy Cline for assisting with some ticket giveaways that we just did for Winterplace Resort. Congrats to Alex Buchman and friends from Lexington, South Carolina who will be enjoying some awesome conditions at the Raleigh County, WV ski resort on Monday and Tuesday! Winterplace is reporting another 2" of snow in the last 24 hours and 6" in the last 72 hours – 41" on the season! They have 23 of 28 trails open and are making snow as well as expecting more snow over the weekend!

Wisp Resort – 8° – Friday AM 26° – They are reporting 6" of new snow and 19" in the last week and now 31" on the season. Actually they’ve now seen 44.2" on the season! Wisp also has 31 of 32 trails open with only "Bobcat Bowl" not open. They have their new ice rink open, mountain coaster and Snow tubing as well! Wisp also offers 10 km of Nordic trails open with 6-9" of natural snow on the ground. We’ve been getting more interest than ever for the Garrett County ski resort and we’ll be attempting to get you guys more input on this great ski area. You really owe it to yourself to head to Wisp if you’ve never been up that way. It is an AWESOME trip and they offer a unique feel that you’ll really enjoy.

Massanutten Resort – 12° – Friday AM 31° – No report of snowfall but snow is in the forecast. Mass is 100% open with all 14 trails in awesome shape! They also offer 8 lanes of near perfect snow tubing and an indoor water park for added fun! According to the official Cocorahs reporting station at Rockingham County Mass has seen 24.3" of snow on the season with 18" of it coming on December 19-20th.

Wintergreen Resort – 8° – Friday AM 29° – They are now 100% open with all 26 trails and their mega snow tubing park "The Plunge!". Wintergreen is expecting snow today and they are offering superb conditions!

Bryce Resort – 21° – Thanks to Cocorahs we were able to get an updated season snowfall total from an official reporting station at the Shenandoah County, Virginia ski resort. Bryce has seen 2" in the last 72 hours and 25" on the season. That’s 2" MORE than Bryce was reporting. Bryce has 7 of 8 trails running, and snow tubing as well.

The Homestead – 7° – They are now 100% open with all eight trails and snow tubing and ice skating. Remember that they also offer Snowmobiling at The Homestead! They are expecting snow today and have seen 23" on the season.

Ober Gatlinburg – 15° – Friday AM 32° – Kathy Doyle is reporting a TRACE of new snow at the Smoky Mountain Ski resort. They made a TON of new manmade powder with these cold temps and now have 6 of 8 trails open, some terrain park features and snow tubing.

Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted more than 13,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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